Archives for November 2010

You have all seen it. A mediocre action or statement that someone of influence makes and the crowd repeats it. The current nature of the web and mobile technology has made this an amplified occurrence. The last one I witnessed was just a week ago. It was so bad that I also saw many people call it out for what it was. The statement was neither unique or helpful.

I first started evaluating my own actions like this at a conference last year. I was getting ….

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When the iPad first came out earlier this year I wrote up a favorable review highlighting how it is a great tool for the connector. I agree with many that the iPad right at the outset felt like a second generation product. You can tell Apple spent time working through the details way before April 3rd 2010. That said, there were some productivity functions that needed improvement. Last week Apple released the iOS 4.2 update for the iPad. True to Apple form, they left out a good instruction guide for the update. I found that even power users were missing out on some of the best feature updates. Here is a video walkthrough of some of the major changes. I don’t cover all the changes here but I think I cover some of the best productivity updates that were….

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My friend and one of my personal tech guides Andy Traub gives us a walk through (video) of Rapportive and “raplets”, an add on to manage social media connections and contacts simultaneously. Managing your contacts is probably one of the most important things a good connector can do. I will have more on that in the coming weeks. For now learn from one expert I enjoy learning from. Please leave a comment if you have a question for Andy or a tip of your own…

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very Thanksgiving my wife and I watch the John Hughes film Planes, Trains and Automobiles with the late John Candy and Steve Martin. Besides being hilarious it is a heart warming story of two strangers finding their way home for the holiday. Steve Martin plays Neal Page, a successful ad exec. annoyed by the good-natured travel mate he is unwillingly thrown together with on cancelled flights, buses, trains, and cars.

Many scenes play on the common situation we have all found ourselves in. You …..

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Last Thursday I had the pleasure of seeing a really great team’s hard work of pay off. I have been planning a public launch party for Data Basin for the last six months with a team that made it seem easy even though there was plenty of hard ground work behind the scenes. Back in May I had asked Keen Footwear if they would be interested in hosting the event. Data Basin’s scope and mission was a natural fit for Keen’s Hybrid Life…..

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Megan Burns (@MeganEBurns) posted this tweet a few days back that caught my attention: There are two sets of skills: technical and people. If you don’t have the 2nd, the 1st won’t save you.

It seemed like a great blog post subject. So the following is a guest post by Megan.

As I work with different clients, Iâ€™m noticing that the emphasis on a personâ€™s technical skills and abilities is not as important as it once was. Now, organizations are becoming more concerned about a personâ€™s people skills. If you think back, we can all bring to mind the one person we worked with that could not interact with anyone, but the company kept the person around because they knew so much. Anymore, your technical skills are not going to save you if you donâ€™t have the people skills.

The reason for this is because there is such a wealth of information available to us now. If I wanted to, I could Google a given topic, spend a few hours researching it, and know pretty much everything ….

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We all lead a tribe. We have communities who look to us to guide them, such as: your family, small church group, employees, co-workers, customers, bridge club, and neighborhood watch. The list goes on and on. Some are small and some big. What we don’t often talk about is the role they play.

You have decided what nascent group to lead, gathered them together, and created something for them to go crazy about. Now the work really begins. Give them ways to share, connect, engage, hang out, play, take part in and create …….

Connecting with people is rewarding in many different ways, but it is also profitable. Good connections can become business transactions. Sometimes good connectors may feel awkward writing business proposals for someone they have built a friendship with. However, an open and honest business offer is not only pragmatic, it protects friendships. An exchange of services must be spelled out explicitly to avoid presumption. When people are in need of a particular service, they don’t mind paying for it. People who avoid discussing money openly may harm relationships in the long run.

This is important especially when you are beginning your business. Being candid in business is always better than being vague. Honesty is synonymous with integrity in many instances. So when you have a service that is worth paying for, ….